Their bid to repeat as NBA champions in back-to-back seasons failed for the Los Angeles Lakers after the Phoenix Suns eliminated the squad in the first round.
The truncated offseason after the Lakers hoisted the title and the injuries that mounted during this season eventually caught up to L.A., and it simply ran out of fuel.
The regular season did not treat LeBron James kindly, either.
After suffering an ankle sprain in late March when a player dived for a loose ball and fell on him, James missed 27 games, the most games he hasn’t played in one season in his 18-year career.
Add the fact that the NBA condensed the regular season into 72 games rather than the normal 82 and James’ exclusion of games has a stronger effect.
When healthy, the Lakers had aspirations of ending the season with either the No. 1 or 2 seed. Once James and Anthony Davis with his calf strain went out of the lineup, Los Angeles plummeted to the seventh seed.
All of Los Angeles’ woes culminated in its first-round exit, which was sped up when Davis went down with a groin strain, and a season mired in disappointment came to a close.
But James wants to bounce back with a vengeance, and he used Instagram to say it with a clip from the movie ‘Gladiator’:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CP1lLAdDPVj/
“I will have my vengeance, this life or the next.”
The Lakers have a much longer period of rest this offseason than in the last one, so there’s plenty of time for players to regain their health for the upcoming season. The team will need James at full health to have a shot at lifting the title once again.
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